Darren: Kensey Foods

'Italy has ingredients in abundance that make some mouth- watering food.'

What could be better for dessert lovers than the finest recipes from Belgium, Italy and France with a dollop of Cornish joie de vivre?

Kensey Foods’ development chef Darren loves nothing more than making a chocolate fondant at home for a lucky dinner party: “It’s a ‘wow’ dessert to finish any meal,” he says. “I like to serve it simply with Cornish clotted cream and fresh berries.” Wow indeed!

Darren tells us the beauty of the chocolate fondant is that it can be made well in advance of any guests arriving, and it will be fine left chilled in the fridge prior to baking: “I simply place it in the middle of a fan assisted oven for 15 minutes which is always a nice break between courses. You can also make a bigger batch and freeze some for a later date.”

A lover of Italian food, Darren admires the skill involved to make the perfect Panna cotta, and the simplicity of the dish: “Italian cooked cream isn’t an easy one to master,” he says. “The richness of some dishes and the ingredients, which the Italians have in abundance, make some mouth-watering food.”

His passion for fine desserts led Darren to produce the Two Pack Belgian Chocolate Melting Middle, which he developed at Kensey ten years ago, and which remains very popular within the chilled desserts range. Care and consideration with every component of recipes is pivotal to his success: “If there is an ingredient within a dish it must have a purpose. This, for me, is important cooking at home as well as developing desserts at work.”